The morning sun did little to banish the stench of death. Broken Fang Gorge reeked of iron and venom, the earth slick with wolf blood and disciple blood alike. Survivors moved sluggishly, haunted eyes darting from shadow to shadow as though the night's slaughter might return with the next blink.
Lin Xuan sat apart, legs crossed, spear laid across his knees. His robe was torn, stained crimson, but his breathing was calm. Each inhale drew in the miasma, each exhale expelled its poison.
The Flowing Meridian Path hummed through his veins, refining the taint of last night into a faint trickle of strength.
[System Report: Stamina restored to 81%. Qi circulation efficiency +12% from recent battle.]
Lin Xuan opened his eyes. Around him, the other disciples looked hollow, muttering among themselves. Some wept quietly over lost companions. Others sharpened blades with frantic energy, trying to grind away fear with steel.
But Lin Xuan remained silent, neither boasting nor despairing. He had lived one lifetime where words could topple empires — and another where silence meant survival. Here, in this trial, silence served him better.
Instructor Huo stood grimly at the head of the battered survivors. His robe bore new tears, his hair streaked with dried blood.
"The gorge does not forgive weakness," he said coldly. "If you survived, it was not luck. If you wish to remain alive, move. The ores deeper within are worth tenfold what we've gathered. Until the sect's quota is filled, you return to no walls, no safety."
Murmurs rose — disbelief, protest — but none dared voice rebellion openly. The sect's decree was law.
Wei Qing tightened his grip on his ironwood spear, his jaw set. Lin Xuan caught his glance, calm and assessing.
"Stay near me," Wei Qing muttered low. "Too many are broken already. Chaos will take more than the beasts."
Lin Xuan inclined his head faintly. "Understood."
The path narrowed as they moved deeper. The gorge walls rose higher, jagged stone pressing inward like the fangs of some colossal beast. Mist thickened until even sound seemed muffled, swallowed whole.
[System Alert: Beast signatures ahead. Estimated rank: Qi Gathering, Late to Peak.]
The warning brushed Lin Xuan's mind like cold fingers. He shifted his spear slightly but said nothing. To speak would only spread panic.
The first attack came swift. From the mist, a serpent lunged — scales black as obsidian, eyes burning with scarlet light. Its body spanned ten paces, its fangs dripping venom that smoked upon the stone.
A disciple screamed as the serpent's tail lashed, bones snapping like dry twigs. Chaos erupted once more.
Lin Xuan did not rush in. He watched.
[Skill Detected: Crimson Serpent Lash – Beast technique.]
The pattern unfolded before his eyes — the timing of its coils, the rhythm of its strikes. Only when another disciple's blade glanced uselessly off its scales did Lin Xuan move.
His spear shot forward in silence, sliding between scales at the precise gap revealed in its lunge. The tip pierced through the serpent's jaw into its skull. The beast convulsed once and fell limp.
The watching disciples gasped. But Lin Xuan offered no roar of victory, no boast. He simply wrenched his spear free, blood dripping, and stepped back into the mist as if nothing had happened.
"He killed it… with one strike…"
"Outer disciple? How can he…"
"Don't draw attention — Meng Zhao's people will be listening."
The whispers followed him, yet Lin Xuan neither acknowledged nor denied them. Let them murmur. Words were weight; he would not carry them.
Wei Qing gave him a sidelong look, something like respect flickering in his steady gaze. But he, too, said nothing.
As they pressed deeper, Lin Xuan began to notice something strange. Beneath the cries of beasts and the clatter of steel, there was another sound — faint, distant, like a heartbeat echoing through stone.
Thump.
…Thump.
Each pulse seemed to ripple faintly through the mist, stirring the blood within his veins.
[System Alert: Unidentified energy source detected. Origin: Beneath gorge bedrock.]
Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed. So the trial was not merely to gather ores. Something ancient slumbered here. Something the sect had not spoken of.
By the second day within the inner gorge, corpses littered the path. Some were beasts, their Qi dispersing into the mists. Others were disciples, their faces twisted in fear or betrayal.
At dusk, Lin Xuan knelt to examine a shattered ore vein. His hand brushed stone — and the System chimed.
[Material Insight: Ore infused with trace of Primordial Qi. Age: 10,000+ years. Warning: Residual energy unstable.]
Primordial Qi. His breath caught. Such energy could temper bones, fortify meridians, elevate cultivation beyond ordinary stages. Yet it was buried here, left to rot beneath stone.
Why would the sect not seize it? Unless…
Unless the risk of disturbing its source was greater than the reward.
Night fell again, cloaking the gorge in deeper shadow. This time, the beasts that came were not wolves or serpents, but twisted forms — creatures with too many eyes, too many limbs, as though the gorge itself warped them.
One disciple screamed as a clawed beast tore him open. Another fell into silence, dragged screaming into the mist.
Lin Xuan fought without flourish, his spear moving in clean arcs, each strike efficient, ending lives with no wasted motion. He did not chase glory, did not cry out. Only his steady rhythm of breath and strike remained.
Yet in his silence, he stood taller than those who shouted.
On the third night, as the survivors made camp within a shallow cave, Lin Xuan wandered a short distance, his spear tapping the stone. Something tugged at his chest, faint but insistent — the same rhythm as the gorge's heartbeat.
He pressed his hand against the wall. Stone vibrated faintly beneath his palm.
[System Alert: Hidden chamber detected. Barrier weak.]
His eyes narrowed. Without a word, he adjusted his Qi, guiding it through the Flowing Meridian Path. A faint fissure shimmered, light bleeding through stone.
A chamber lay beyond, its air heavy with ancient power.
But before he could probe further, footsteps echoed behind him. Wei Qing's voice came low. "Lin Xuan. What did you find?"
The words were calm, but the question was sharp as a blade.
Lin Xuan withdrew his hand, turning slowly. The faint fissure dimmed, vanishing beneath ordinary stone.
He met Wei Qing's gaze. The man's expression was steady, but his eyes searched with a depth that spoke of more than curiosity.
"I found nothing," Lin Xuan said quietly. His voice was even, unshaken.
But as he walked back toward the fire, the System pulsed.
[Hidden Quest Triggered: Unlock the Primordial Seal beneath Broken Fang Gorge. Time Limit: Unknown.]
The gorge's heartbeat thrummed louder in his ears. Thump. …Thump.
And in the mist beyond camp, unseen eyes opened — not beast, not man, but something far older, stirring awake.